Dublin man critical following heart attack after 12-hour A&E wait

A Dublin man who left an A&E department after waiting for 12 hours is in a critical condition after suffering a heart attack, his family has claimed.

Noel McDermott (52) told his sister he "couldn’t take it much longer" when he was left to stand in the A&E department of the Mater Hospital in Dublin.

Days later, he suffered a heart attack and is now in the High Dependency Unit after suffering from profound brain damage, his sister Catherine McDermott told Independent.ie.

Mr McDermott has a history of health problems and has been diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening bowel condition. He also has two stents in his heart and was awaiting a third before he suffered the heart attack.

Due to having a severely low blood count, he had to have 15 blood transfusions so far this year.

His sister is calling on the Irish Government to do something about the lack of staff and serious overcrowding in hospitals.

"There were just seven chairs in the A&E department. He had nowhere to sit and kept falling to his honkers with the pain.

"After twelve hours, he turned to me and said 'I can’t take it much longer'," Ms McDermott said.

"The nurses were trying to explain to us how they are short-staffed and there was no room to put him, so we can't really blame them," she added.

Four weeks ago Noel visited a care doctor service when he developed a splitting pain in his side. The doctor thought it may have been appendicitis and told him to go to A&E.

The following morning, he attended the Mater Emergency Department and a CT scan identified a life-threatening bowel condition.

Catherine claims he was then sent back out to wait as he could not be admitted to a ward, so he went home after not being able to stand any longer with the pain.

"I think he was terrified it was cancer. He was so exhausted that he left A&E and went home. I begged him to go back but he broke down in front of me."